11 April 2011

Sweet View

These Sweet View prints by artist Jack Noel are really resonating with me this morning. Over the last couple of years I’ve been gently researching my family tree on my father’s side and it seems I’m a Londoner as far back as I can trace – at least seven generations to silkweavers in Spitalfields and Bethnal Green; chairmakers and cabinetmakers in Brentford and bookbinders and stationers near the Strand.

This series of prints shows London as it’s lived by Londoner - not the hackneyed tourist images but ‘views of the crossroads, markets and hidden squares that provide the true backdrop to a life in London”. So far he’s done six of the inner London boroughs, with another six to come later this year.

Hackney The view shows St Leonard’s Church in Shoreditch (the famous ‘Oranges & Lemons’ church) – generations of my family were christened and married here.

Tower Hamlets (Columbia Road Market)

Westminster (I love how this is a corner of Trafalgar Square without a view of Nelson’s Column)

Southwark (Borough Market)

Wandsworth

Lambeth

Really hoping he does a view of Notting Hill for Kensington & Chelsea.